Hello everyone, I've followed Stanceworks for a long time and just now decided to join. I wanted to make a build thread for my car so, others could see it and, I could always have the ability to see where I started.
Anyways lets start.
This is Ellie a 98 M3 coupe
She is my first car, I got her when I was 16, 2 years ago. My grandparents used some of the money they inherited from my great grand mother to buy it for me. I thought I was getting a 91 Honda Accord that needed a new engine and trans, looking back I wish we had hung on to it.
Anyway. She had a 5 speed, HK audio, Power everything, Vaders, Smokers Package, 120,389 miles, and was basically bone stock except for Bilsteins, which were only in the front.
I learned to drive her the day after I got her and I was off. I drove her around all summer until, she got a check engine. Looking back WTF was wrong with me...... I flipped out. I thought the world was going to end. I took it to the shop and wow, turns out it was the charcoal canister, which I didn't figure out until much later. But she did need just about every bushing replaced so I went all poly.
Got her back and started to really go to work. Found every little problem I could on her.
While she had a clean Car-Fax it was pretty evident that she had been in a wreck on the driver's side. front QP didn't have the VIN the nose panel on the front was F'ed and the headlight was way cleaner than the other.
That was the biggest issue. Other than that all she needed was the cruise control fixed, SRS light reset,the stupid brake light switch replaced, new shift linkage (2nd to 3rd usually resulted in 5th,) and some new rubber.
Soon to come was the rubber. I got some Kumho Ecsta ASXs
Worst tires ever. DO NOT GET THEM. Grip was awful and I wore through them in 15k miles.
Next to tackle was the shifter. I got a UUC EVO 3 SSK. Probably the best mod to my car so far. I love it.
Only problem was it didn't fix the shifter problem. So time for some new fluid.
ATF in a 5 speed
Well, turns out it's better. Cleared the shifts up a lot. But it still needs new Detent pins.
While I was down there I threw in some Diff Fluid
By that time winter had crept up on me and much to my surprise, I found out the Thermostat was stuck open. I froze my A$$ off because It was to cold to fix it and the garage was stuffed full of my dad's FFR kit car. Not to mention Ellie burned about two quarts of oil a month because she wasn't getting up to temp.
I did find the motivation to do brakes though.
Akebono Euro Ceramics..... Don't get them, they suck D.
Winter passed, Summer came and damn...... I got in a wreck. Only wreck i've ever been in and thankfully Ellie is tough. She drove away and the Honda that hit her ruined it's front end
Not much longer, I was mowing the lawn and my dad comes out and tell me my mom backed into Ellie.
Really?
Yep.
Soon after. I got the sunstrip
and the tag
and a new shift knob because I let a friend drive the car and he broke it trying to get it in reverse.
Other than that the rest of the summer went by without a hiccup. I fixed the brake light circuit and got some new clutch bushings to try and fix the sagging pedal.... That failed hard.
Winter came and with it more problems. Thermostat was still F'ed Rear STMs Blew, Rear shocks died. All this meant was...... SUSPENSION OVERHAUL!!!!!
In came the parts.
TMS Shock Mount/Reinforcement Kit
H&R Sport Adjustable Springs
And Bilsteins for the back
Fun stuff. At this point I started to get into the DIY aspect of cars. Not just driving.
Time to do work. I searched the interwebs and cam across the airbox debaffle. Double your intake size? For free? 5 mins later. Done.
Went from this
To this
And it made the intake much louder. Bi-Winning. If you have an e36 and want to do this, here's my walkthrough.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1587233
Also got my A$$ in gear and did the thermostat and a coolant flush.
By this time Kumhos were F'ed to hell. I almost died coming home in a rain storm one night they were so bald.
Ordered me some new Conti Extreme Contact DWSs.
They are awesome! Huge grip with a ridiculous treadwear. And by this point the new springs had settled. Time for a shoot.
Probably My favorite shot of her.
Well, this was all fine and dandy, but, this was around the time when I first saw Rusty Slammington. This Changed everything. I went from wanting a racecar, to wanting a slammed racecar. This sport spring drop would not do.
Of course being a high school student my income was $0 so naturally I didn't do anything except pray that the springs would drop more. They didn't.
While I had the car getting new tires they did a courtesy check over and, FUUUUUU.
I quote this from the actual sheet they gave me.
The valve cover gasket is leaking.
The rear main seal is leaking.
The output shaft seal is leaking.
Tie rods are bad.
Engine belts are cracking.
Oil filter stand gasket seeping.
Power steering suction and return hoses leaking.
On top of all that my front right wheel was bent beyond repair. Thank god I had a full size spare.
Well, time to order parts.
All ordered that night.
Did the valve cover gasket in about 30 mins. I could do it in 15 if I had to do it again. Probably my favorite job. I got to see the cams
The next weekend I got her over to a friends house with a lift and got to work.
New tie rods
Did a brake fluid flush, went to ATE Super Blue
New Engine Belt
Went the next day and got an alignment.
Ellie was a happy girl after that.But I wasn't. on my way home from school one day a girl in front of me ran off the road and kicked up a huge rock and cracked my windshield. Left it like that for a while and the crack spread all the way across.
While the windshield crack was spreading I went on a painting frenzy.
First the splitter.
And then came the Grills.
and the Engine Cover.
Then I posted some shots from this shoot on bimmerforums.
I got so much **** on the sunstrip that I decided to ditch it. And what do ya know. I liked it a lot better.
Well. I was out of things to do and out of money so I looked for more free things. A quick surf on the internet and 3 hours later. I threw out the front spring pads and swapped my strut mounts.
Hello -3.5* camber
.
Now at this point Ellie had been running with no muffler for about three months. She was quite obnoxious. I couldn't hold a conversation in the car unless she was in neutral. So I had to put her muffler back on. But not before I made some videos. I apologize for the camera quality. It's a bottom of the line Panasonic.
I do miss that sound.
Well, I got the muffler on and much to my surprise, she was still really loud. Only this time it sounded terrible. It must be a header gasket leak I thought to myself. I got under the car and
cracked header.
Pulled the headers, turns out it was worse than a crack. The mid-pipe connector had snapped off.
Order placed
Order received
Work done
I missed that Exhaust not so much I decided I wanted a cat back. Well with no money, I decided to make my own. This is the mod that I'm most proud of. It was actually pretty easy if you're interested here's my DIY
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1688698
Time for some surgery, I cut her open.
Removed the heart.
And made her a new one.
Now she sounds like this.
She's no where near as loud inside but outside you can still here me coming from a few streets away. I'm happy with her.
That's the most recent mod I've done. There are lots of small things I left out like headliner, door cards, door handles, and micro sensors. I might add those. But I'm really tired it's late and I've got to go get her inspected tomorrow. Hopefully she passes this time. I'm also calling Eibach tomorrow to try and order some custom springs. It's time to fit the Stanceworks name. Ellie is going to be slammed soon. All she needs is stiffer/lower front springs and a left front upper strut mount.
I'll leave you all with a few recent shots and a before and after of the ride height drop after the spring perch removal. Thanks for looking and goodnight.
Before.
After
And one of my favorite shots
One more.
Got a her a new windshield finally. I didn't realize we had full coverage. All I had to do was call insurance and I got it for free.
She also decided to help me out. She has a failing charcoal canister that causes a check engine. This is what failed me the first time. Luckily it goes out for short periods of time. So I ran her to the shop when it went out and, she passed!
Here she is right before inspection, new windshield in (I got the newer BMW one with the water channels that push rain up onto the roof, not into your car.)
During Inspection.
I'm going to wash her before I leave for college in a few days, sadly she can't come with me so she'll be parked outside and hopefully my dad will drive her to work once or twice a week so she stays fresh.
Ellie The M3
Hybrid Mode
